Mini Monster
by Mercotus
Summary: How you be normal when you are a monster? Inspired by Bleedman's "Grim Tales" comic.


Brief background: This was inspired by a fan-comic I read sometime a go based on Bleedman's "Grim Tales." While the original source (the non-Bleedman version) was a good read, I believed that I could make a more coherent storyline in text. Because of this, several changes where made that must be pointed out:

1. Minnie is a full human and has powers similar to her Bleedman version

2. Junior has been renamed 'Death' for simplicity

3. Junior (Death) and Minnie are not related to each other

4. Mandy is Minnie's older sister because the mother role didn't fit too well with my story

I also want to point out this piece is a one-off and any future "Grim Tales" works I (may) do will be closer to the original source than this one. Its also my first story that received enough attention to become coherent.

/With that, enjoy./

"Mini-Monster"

_A Short Story_

Minnie was highly unusual for several reasons. One was that she spoke funny sometimes. Another was that she wore clothing considered to be awkward, while an additional reason was that she preferred to read dark and graphic novels about maidens with horrible fates. And she also happened to be a monster.

It was winter when Minnie began reading _Snow White: Patches of Red Snow_. It was a continuation of Snow White, but without the happily ever after. She always found it sad that the maidens she read of ended horribly, but kept reading hoping for that one happy ending. After several pages, Minnie stretched and looked out the classroom window.

Her reflection showed a charming girl of fifteen with short blond hair and soft gray eyes. She wore a white dress shirt under a green dress and had red leggings that complemented her golden scarf. From the window were the school grounds, simple and quiet, and beyond them was the Kanji Mountain range, where she lived with her older sister.

While starring out into the distance, Minnie though that she heard someone call her name. Unfortunately, someone _was_ calling her name.

"Minnie! Minnie, there you are." It was Mindy, a tall redhead girl that was in Minnie's class. Behind stood her two friends, Danny, a black haired lanky boy with buckteeth and Lucy, a spoiled redhead with curls. _What now?_ sulked Minnie under her breath. _Can't you see I am deep in thought?_ "Minnie! You must join us for lunch so that we can educate you on how to be popular and to stop being a looooser."

"I fear I must decline your ludicrous demand." Minnie replied.

"Huh?"

"It means 'No,' Mindy."

Mindy took this seriously and began to throw a tantrum. Apparently Mindy hadn't matured since she was seven. Danny and Lucy stepped in and managed to calm Mindy down. They all gave Minnie dark looks as Mindy regained her composure.

"Forget it, guys," she said. "Obviously the freakish _loser_ wants to be alone."

"Must be that time of the month, huh?" sneered Lucy.

"Not cool." put in Danny. The trio soon left the room, leaving Minnie all alone. Minnie was always bullied in school, yet no one stood up for her, nor gave her comfort and hope. This deeply angered her and when things deeply angered her, she felt this strong urge to lash out against her tormenters. Gripping her desk, Minnie brought herself under control.

"You speak a grave truth. My time _has_ come, but it is far worse than what you can imagine, especially if you aren't careful…" she spoke softly to the empty room. "For my time… brings _Death_." She buried her face in her book; hot tears were flowing down her checks. "But I shall not permit it. Even though you are all sinners, I will not let myself go. If I do, then I shall become like _Patches of Red Snow_…" Just then the bell rang. It was time for lunch. Putting her coat on, Minnie began to walk her familiar, lonely path to home for the hour.

As she traversed the hallways, people where whispering and pointing at her. Could it be that what happened in the classroom already spread to the others? But then, she thought, they always did that to her. They made her feel like she wasn't _normal_. As she walked down the country road to her home, the sky grew cloudy and began to drop snow on to the Earth below.

_Snow used to enlighten me, but now all it brings is pain. _As she walked through the snow, her mind began to race back to other times it had snowed. Each time a new memory began, it was happy, yet each memory ended with death. The most vivid was when she was seven, standing over the ravaged body of a student, hands and face smeared in fresh blood. The anger and sadness of that day filled her immensely and she fell to her knees shouting:

"WHY CAN"T I BE _NORMAL_! WHY? Why…" All was still, they was no one to reply, the only sound being Minnie's soft sobs…until-

"Because you're not doing it right." Minnie knew she heard it. She knew that someone was there. It sounded hollow, yet warm to her, as the song it spoke was like a nursery rhyme that never left memory. Looking around, Minnie noticed she was in a clearing and that she found no one present. "Behind you." the voice spoke again, this time in her ear. Spinning around, Minnie gasped when her eyes fell on the speaker.

There stood a tall figure in a black cloak decorated in green runes. From the darkness of the cloak came a pair of deep green eyes and skeletal hands, one of which held a long, freighting scythe.

"The Grim Reaper!" she exclaimed. "But- but I haven't… _died_, have I?" The reaper laughed and shook his head, apparently.

"No, you haven't died, Minnie. Its just-"

"You know my name!" This revelation frightened her, but not as much as realizing Death itself was in front of her.

"Of course I do, I'm Death. I'm supposed to know who you are. Anyway," it walked closer to Minnie. "You're making my job really difficult. That snob- Mindy- treated you as if you where nothing."

"But I am nothing!" protested Minnie. "How could I not feel like I'm nothing when I CAN'T- BE- _normal!_" She broke down and began to cry. Death kneeled down and placed its hand on her shoulder. Its skeletal hands brought unexpected warmth to her and she soon calmed down, though hot tears continued to fall to the ground. "Tell me, why do you come to me if it's not my time?" Death sighed and motioned towards a nearby stump. Once comfortable, Death began to explain its self.

"I am here, on my own accord, because you have this great potential, a purpose, yet you misunderstand it terribly." Minnie wasn't sure what Death meant, but nodded in agreement. "Do what you were born to do, even if it means devouring everyone who mistreated you. Just be normal." These words sunk deep into Minnie's soul and she began to feel something inside. There was a long silence, as she slowly comprehended this message.

"You are right, Spector." she spoke at last, staring out across the field of snow. "Fleeing who I am… doesn't suit me." Suddenly, it all made sense. Her anger, her urge to let out her lust for revenge- everything- it all made sense now. Turning to thank Death, Minnie found that it was gone and that she was alone again, sitting in the silence of the clearing. But it didn't bother her. In fact, it _enlightened_ her. She got up and made her way home, yet as she was walking, she a felt a funny feeling that she had met Death before. _Why did it feel like we knew each other?_

When she arrived at her home, she found her sister Mandy in the kitchen. Mandy was a no- nonsense woman who had long blond hair and fiery red eyes. She was generally mean to everyone, except Minnie.

"You're late." she said while Minnie took her seat after taking off her coat.

"I apologize, but I must leave soon, for I have… business to attend to." She then chuckled quietly in a sinister way.

"I guess you have been acting normally, huh?" Mandy asked. Minnie smiled back a devilish smile and happily replied:

"As normal as a monster can be!"

After finishing her lunch, Minnie said goodbye to Mandy and ran quickly back to school. As she approached her next class, Lucy appeared and cut her off.

"Oh. It's you." she sniffed "You're such a freak, you now?" Minnie said nothing; she stared intently at the floor. "You were HANDED popularity and you rejected it!" Minnie still stared at the floor; only this time she clutched her hands into fists. Lucy, noticing nothing, continued on. "Now you'll be alone and miserable. You are unnecessary." Lucy then made her biggest mistake. She leaned on Minnie's shoulders and whispered into her ears, "_In this world, you are not needed_."

One moment Lucy was leaning on Minnie, the next she was in the air held by black tentacles. Fear over took her as she franticly looked for the source of this sudden horror until she saw Minnie, her arms extended and tentacles coming out from all around her. Lucy tried to scream, but Minnie motioned the tentacles to cover her face, leaving only her eyes visible.

"Thou whilst plague me with thou foul words no longer!" Minnie's rage was building, her voice now growling furiously. " I AM needed…" she stared straight into Lucy's fearful eyes, her hatred now beyond control, "… for your DEATH." She raised her arms high into the air. "_Your time has come._" Lucy's screams filled the school in a shrieking pitch. Mindy and Danny heard it and ran towards the scene.

"Was that Lucy?" asked Danny.

"Defiantly." replied Mindy. "Who else would- OH MY GOD!" The two of them had found Lucy, or what was left of her ripped corpse. "What's going on here?!"

"No- not cool, man, not co- cool…" stuttered Danny. As they examined in horror, the black tentacles crept from the shadows and suddenly grabbed them by their limbs. Raised high into the air, Danny and Mindy where now face to face with Minnie, her hair now wildly moving as her tentacles tighten their grip on their prey.

"If thou actions had been at all heavenly, I perhaps would not have been awakened," she growled softly, though Danny and Mindy shuddered as if her words pierced their ears. "This strong greed pouring from the pores of the institution has brought you your doom."

"SOO not cool!" yelled Danny. He had had enough.

"I'm too pretty to be handled this way!" shrieked Mindy." Let me down!" But Minnie glared intensely at them and motion for the tentacles to wrap themselves around their necks.

"Thou dost ignore thine situation. Hath thou not realized this is thine end?" At that moment, her hair spiked into the shape of horns and she began to bear devilishly smile. Raising her arms once more, she spoke to them in a monstrous voice as the tentacles began their work. "I shall send you to God's judgment." The screams echoed everywhere and no living being in the school felt safe anymore as, one by one, they all fell to Minnie's horror….

Hours later, Minnie found herself back in the clearing were she met Death earlier. Her clothes were now torn, her now a hot mess, and blood smeared all over her. Each step she made left an imprint of her feet, which was stained in blood. She no longer felt angry or warm, but cold and worried. She had given into her desires; she did what was normal for a monster. _So why do I feel empty?_ she thought sadly. The snow had picked up and the clearing had become a blur around her.

"Where… do I go from here?" she asked aloud to the emptiness.

"That, Minnie, is up to you." Minnie knew who it was this time. That hollow, yet warm voice now filled her ears. She turned around to find Death looking at her from the darkness of his hood. "You did well, Minnie. Personally I though you over did with the old English, but at least you struck fear into them."

"Thank you, Spector, for your kind remarks." she said with a force grin. "So… I guess it is my time, correct? Is that why you are here before me?"

"No, your time isn't now, but then again, where you go from here is up to you." _You go from here is up to you_... what did that mean? Why was Death, the most feared being in existence, giving her this option?

"What do you mean by that?" asked Minnie. "Why do you give me a choice?"

"I'm giving you a choice because… well… because I believe that you deserve more in your existence." Death then reached for its hood and lowered it to reveal, as expected, a skeletal head, but it unexpectedly bore a smile on it. Minnie was now very confused and began to feel her anger building again. This toying from Death was now getting to her. Death must have noticed this as it then produced a parcel from its cloak.

"What is this? Some trick, no doubt?" Minnie was no longer in the mood for tolerating Death when she said this and her voice began to growl again.

"No, it's not a trick, just a thank you present, that's all."

"A thank you present?" the incredulous Minnie asked. "For what?"

"Err… I thought that since you ruined your clothing that you might want some new ones." It then winked at her. "Try it on." Now being a monster and killing people are some of the things Minnie accepted, but talking to Death and receiving gifts from it was something else. Still, she found a quiet spot and tried on her new clothes. After several minutes, Minnie returned to where Death was waiting.

"Is it… satisfactory?" Her outfit now consisted of a black shirt, a dark gray cloak with red runes and matching red pants. Death beamed and clapped its skeletal hands together.

"Perfect! But you forgot something." It then reached into its cloak again and pulled out a small charm. It was a pin that resembled Death's head, but without the mouth and had two, innocent looking eye sockets on the front. Death then placed it on Minnie's cloak.

"Why…" Minnie began, but Death raised its hand.

"You see... I have always been keeping track of you, Minnie. You never felt like another soul wondering around this place looking for a purpose. You _have_ a purpose and you never doubted it. The problem was that you where afraid of it and now you have no one to share it with."

"So…" began Minnie. "_That_ it is why your voice sounded familiar. You were there with that day all those years ago." She fell silent as a revelation dawned upon her. It was crazy, but Minnie knew she was right. "You _too_ are looking for someone to share your purpose with!" She couldn't believe how it made sense, but she couldn't care less.

"Yes, actually…" admitted Death bashfully.

"So that means…."

"Exactly as I said. Where you go from here is up to you. But…" It extended its hand towards her. "It would make us feel complete if we shared our purposes together." Minnie stared in awe and happiness. She now felt something more than warmth; she now felt something greater than happiness…

Minnie extended her hand and placed it in Death's, the warm feeling now flowing freely between them. As she looked into Death's face, she knew that she had found that happy ending- _her_ happy ending.

_And so the Mini Monster danced away with Death, leaving behind Patches of Red Snow._


End file.
